The End (21 page)

Entering his room, he could hear his wife sleeping. He wanted to wake her up and tell her about his day; he missed her so much. He needed her more than she needed him at this moment. She had closed herself off since the death of their son. Even though he was being ignored, he felt it important to just love her regardless of what she gave in return. He hoped that eventually she would come back to him, but until then he would have to love for two people.

Conner not only had to support his country in this dark hour, he had to take control of his marriage, too, if it was going to survive.

San Diego, California

Gordon loved his coffee. In fact, if he didn't get his “fix” he would get headaches. The smell of fresh brewed coffee was one element of his past life he missed. So while he didn't enjoy the cold, bitter coffee, he enjoyed it better than a headache.

The search for food was becoming more and more difficult every day. They had to keep going farther and farther only to find less and less. The community teams he had set up had been working. Their little community was functioning like a town. After each scavenger team returned, they would inventory and store their findings nightly. The following day it would be distributed evenly to each household. Rancho Valentino was fortunate because they had a diverse cross-section of people; from doctors and nurses to engineers and even a horticulturist. Gordon had taken direct control of the community's security forces. He saw that they were trained, armed, and given the support they needed to protect the community. He had set up guard positions at each gated entrance and on several roof tops that had commanding views of the area.

Gordon and the other scavenger teams started to see an increase in violence on the outside. They had been fortunate to have enough arms to give to all of his security forces but there was not enough to protect from an all-out assault if attacked by a well-armed enemy. He needed to find weapons and ammunition. He had conducted a meeting with his security force team leads comprised of Jimmy, Nelson, and a cop named Dan Bradford. Gordon did not think highly of Dan. Maybe it was that he had the responsibility of protecting people but didn't have the discipline to take care of himself. He was overweight and slovenly. Coming highly recommended from Mindy did not help. Whatever the reason, Gordon just didn't quite trust Dan nor did he care for his arrogance; but Gordon had dealt with a lot of egos in his life and he would just have to deal with Dan.

All the team leads decided that they needed to create two new three-man teams, one headed by Gordon and the other by Dan, to find weapons and ammo. They had identified locations where they might find them; Dan would take his team to different police stations while Gordon would go to gun stores.

Each morning before Gordon left for the day, he went and kissed his kids and made sure he told them he loved them. Dan was taking his team south into Mira Mesa; the area was heavily populated and was sure to pose potential problems. Gordon stressed to Dan to get in and out as fast as possible. They had a clear objective, no detours or sightseeing. Gordon was taking his team north just a few miles to a sheriff's depot, then on to Solana Beach if they could fit it in.

Gordon walked back into his bedroom after visiting his children. As Samantha was getting dressed, he walked up behind her and put his arms around her. Embracing her tightly, he kissed her neck and whispered in her ear. He loved her so much; she had adapted quickly to the new reality and had volunteered to be a teacher in a school that they had put together. The idea of the school was Samantha's; she thought it best to ensure the children were still educated. The school also gave the children something of structure and the comfort of routine.

Holding her tightly, Gordon said, “Love you, babe.”

Samantha leaned against Gordon and replied, “I love you too.”

“I just wanted to give you a kiss before I left.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Nowhere special,” Gordon said. He never got into too much detail with her over his daily missions and he never told her about any incidents; the last thing he wanted to do was make her any more nervous than she was.

Samantha turned around and faced him. She looked up at him and asked, “Gordon, how long can we do this? How long can we keep this all together?”

Looking down at her, he stroked some hair away from her face. “As long as we have to.”

“That's not an answer, Gordon.”

“Sam, all I know is we don't have a choice but to keep doing what we're doing. Things seem to be working, and if we can keep finding food then we will be okay,” Gordon answered. He had a hard time keeping a straight face, as he didn't believe the words that came spilling out of his mouth.

Looking more deeply into his eyes, she asked, “Really?”

Putting his hand on her cheek and bringing her lips to his, he kissed her. He then looked at her green eyes and said, “Yes, we will be okay.” Gordon was unsure of what the future held. His nightly sleep was interrupted with nightmares of losing his family to this new world. He struggled but had been successful at keeping those thoughts out of his mind. “Honey, I have to go; I'll see you tonight.” He kissed her again and left.

Walking the neighborhood, he noticed a transformation in the community. Dozens of people were walking the streets coming and going, clotheslines now stretched in backyards, tarps were hung to capture the morning condensation, five-gallon buckets were positioned under rain gutters to gather run-off, smoke billowed out of chimneys. Gone were his neighbors exercising or mothers casually pushing their strollers while talking on their phones. Most people had pushed their unusable cars out into the street to open up more space in their garages.

As he walked he looked at everyone. They no longer seemed to care about appearances. Most of the women had their hair pulled back while men wore hats and were unshaven.

Each scavenger team brought back food, but it was never enough to feed the more than seven hundred people who lived in their community. The gardening might work but it would be slow, it would take months before the gardens would be producing any real amount of food. Water, too, would become an issue; they had secured the large tank but that would only last for a couple of months before it ran dry and then there was the issue of medicine; some in the community had ongoing medical issues that required daily medications. Jimmy's own son had to have an inhaler due to his asthma. Fortunately, the teams had been very successful with securing large caches of medications but that too would eventually dry up.

Gordon had a lot on his plate, but he was committed to making it work; at the moment he had no other choice unless he was going to leave and risk it on the road.

Gordon's thoughts were interrupted when Melissa hollered his name from a distance. “Gordon!”

He looked around and saw her waving; returning the wave he wondered what she might want as she jogged up to him.

“Hi, Gordon, how are you and the family?”

“I'm good, thanks for asking; how are you doing?”

“Good—well, as good as can be with the circumstances. As you know, Eric finally made it home the next day. He had to walk all the way from downtown,” Melissa said. She appeared nervous; she crossed her arms when she wasn't talking.

“I had heard, I knew he'd be fine.” Gordon tried to keep his answers short because he now was late to meet his team.

“I'm sorry; I know you're busy, Gordon, but I'm really here to ask a favor and not to have small talk.”

“Okay, so how can I help?”

“Eric has just been at home with the baby and not doing anything; I've been doing some volunteering at the school with Samantha, as I'm sure you're aware.”

“Yes, I know,” Gordon said.

“You see, it's about Eric; he's kinda in a funk,” Melissa said. She was not really looking Gordon in the face when she talked and her nervous behavior increased when she mentioned her husband.

Sensing her nervousness, Gordon reached out and touched her arm and said, “What is it Melissa?”

Giving a sigh she said, “Can Eric join your teams? He's really smart and he's strong; he rowed in college and he's athletic. I know he's just an accountant and has no military experience but he can use the guy time and he needs to get out of the house and do something.”

“Why isn't Eric here asking me?” Gordon asked.

“Because he was afraid you'd say no.”

“Oh my God, not at all; I need smart guys like Eric. I don't care what he did before as long as he can handle himself outside the gate.”

Melissa's face lit up and she said, “Great! I'll let him know. When can he meet you to go over any details?”

“How about you come over for dinner tonight? I'll pull him aside to chat. How does that sound?”

“Sounds perfect, Gordon. Thank you so much,” Melissa said, now looking happy and relieved.

“Not a problem at all. But if you'll excuse me I do need to go,” Gordon said, pointing to his team waiting on him.

Melissa turned in the direction he was pointing and then turned back and said, “No problem, thank you again. I'll see you tonight.”

Gordon walked off and then stopped. He turned back and said, “Please let my wife know we're having you all over for dinner tonight.”

“I'll let her know at school,” Melissa said. She then waved and turned around.

Gordon started walking toward his team. He liked Eric; he didn't know him that well but Eric impressed him as an educated and smart man. He was a second-generation Chinese immigrant. His parents came to the U.S. with nothing and opened up a small bakery. Pouring their heart and soul into it, they made the bakery successful enough that they could afford to send Eric to Harvard. Eric followed his parents' entrepreneurial spirit and opened his own accounting firm after getting an MBA. He was average height and very lean. He was five years older than Gordon and about ten years senior to Melissa. Gordon would get a better feel for Eric's spot on the teams tonight over a drink. Always needing good people, Gordon looked forward to sitting down with him.

Gordon finally reached the vehicle and tossed in his gear. Today he was going out with Max and Jerrod. Jerrod was a former Army Ranger and veteran of Iraq. He was tall and muscular, with thick brown hair and brown eyes. With the last name of Hernandez, Gordon laughed to himself that Jerrod was not a very Hispanic first name. Before the attacks, Gordon only knew him in passing when he'd see him out running in the neighborhood. Jerrod was married and had a two-year-old son.

Max was short in build but made up for his height by having quite the “colorful” personality. Gordon thought he fit the perfect image of a suave Italian single guy. He kept his full head of short, black hair combed back. He was one of the few single people who lived in the neighborhood. Gordon had never met Max before the attacks but knew he was an attorney for a law firm downtown.

Both men had proven to be quite competent and capable. Max was a bit of a hothead and had a short temper, but he had proven he could fight and Gordon liked that.

“You gentlemen ready?” Gordon asked.

“Yes, sir,” Jerrod said.

“Yep,” Max answered, leaning against the Chevy Nova. The Nova was Max's car. He loved old classic muscle cars and he let everyone know that his car was fast.

All three men got in the car with Gordon riding shotgun. After they cleared the main gate, Max asked, “Where to?”

Gordon looked both ways and said, “That way. Hopefully we'll come back with a lot more guns. Keep your fingers crossed, boys, and stay alert, we're going farther than we have before.”

Max slammed the gas pedal down, causing the Nova to spin out. They accelerated quickly and disappeared over the hill.

USS
Makin Island
, Indian Ocean

Sebastian sat outside getting some cool ocean air when the hatch opened, bathing him in the red light from the passageway. Tomlinson stepped out of the glow and approached Sebastian.

Tomlinson pulled out a pack of Camel Lights and offered one to Sebastian. “You look like you could use one of these.”

“No, but if you had a drink I would take that,” Sebastian answered. He stared out into the moonlit waters of the Indian Ocean. The saltiness of the air and the sounds of the waves soothed his troubled mind.

Tomlinson sat next to him and lit his cigarette. He took a drag and asked, “So tell me, what happened out there this morning?”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Sebastian said, not looking at Tomlinson.

“Well, I'll tell you this, if you ever want to chat, I'm here for ya, bro, as long as you're not going to whine.”

“What do you think happens now?” Sebastian asked.

“Oh, I don't know; what sucks is that we have to be underway for the next three weeks with not a single port call,” Tomlinson said, then took another drag.

“You do realize that if we get back to the States and everything is working fine or things go back to normal, we risk being arrested and possibly hung for what happened today.”

“Well, first they'd have to catch me and second I trust the colonel. I think everything is fucked and we have to carve out something for us now.”

“I hope you're right, I really do.”

“Seriously, man, what's your deal? I've never seen you like this before,” Tomlinson said, then took his last drag and flicked the butt of the cigarette over the railing.

“I told you, I don't want to get into it right now. Let me process what happened today and then maybe we can talk about it, but please respect me and stop asking,” Sebastian said, with a tinge of irritation in his voice.

“Okay, bro. I'll leave you be.” Tomlinson stood up, opened the hatch and walked back inside the ship.

Sebastian sat and plotted what he'd do once they reached California. He just hoped that they could avoid anymore engagements against other Americans before then.